by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright September 2013
Blue Jasmine and Closed Circuit are two refreshing departures from 2013's summer of smash and crash. Blue Jasmine is an interesting character study of a New York socialite who suffers a financial, family and social catastrophe and tries to recover from it by moving in with her half-sister in San Francisco. Closed Circuit is a thriller about a fictional terrorist bombing happening in London. The surprising details of the plot are uncovered by two lawyers defending the accused in a closed court.
The nice part about both of these stories is they do a good job of story telling without involving violence, chasing and gun play. In both of these stories watching the clues and characters is the heart of the story telling, and I like that.
Blue Jasmine starts out as a "fish out of water" tale. Cate Blanchett does a wonderful job of playing a socialite who is thrown completely out of her element by a family catastrophe. The story of her and her sister coping is portrayed in an interesting way. As the story unfolds we discover how that catastrophe built up, and the key role Jasmine played in precipitating it. Alec Baldwin and the rest of the cast are also very good at portraying their characters. The settings are quite simple -- homes and offices -- but they work just fine because the story is an interesting one. Woody Allen, the director, has become quite accomplished at making these kinds of settings work well.
Closed Circuit takes place in London. Once again, the settings are quite simple, but work well. The heart of this story is unfolding the truth behind a terrorist event -- a car bombing in central London. We follow two lawyers, played by Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall, who are handling the defense: one is handling the secret parts that can't be revealed to the public and the other the public parts. What they discover is this is an anti-terror project that has gone sour, and those involved are trying to cover up the blunder. The hard question being addressed is: how can this kind of cover-up abuse be kept in check in a top secret anti-terrorist organization? It's very much a question for our times, and it's well handled in this movie.
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